Back from illness, Elliott leads Flames past Stars
CALGARY, Alberta -- Brian Elliott returned from a bout of the flu to earn his 10th consecutive win as the Calgary Flames beat the Dallas Stars 3-1 on Friday.
Elliott made 24 saves after missing Calgary's Wednesday loss to the Bruins, and he was 6:39 from his third shutout in his past four games. The Flames' franchise-record-tying, 10-game winning streak ended against Boston.
Mark Giordano had a goal and two assists for the Flames (40-27-4). Matthew Tkachuk and Michael Frolik also scored, and Tkachuk added an assist.
Brett Ritchie replied for Dallas (28-33-10), which lost three of four on its road trip. Ritchie beat Elliott through the pads after scooping up a TJ Brodie blunder in the Calgary end. Stars goalie Kari Lehtonen stopped 21 shots.
Frolik opened the scoring at 16:07 of the first period when he took a pass from Mikael Backlund and picked the corner to Lehtonen's glove side from 20 feet out. Frolik also hit the post later in the period and accounted for two of Calgary's six shots over the first 20 minutes.
The Stars did not mount much of an attack in the first period and were stuck on one shot until there were less than three minutes to go before the break. They finished the period with five shots.
Tkachuk made it 2-0 at 5:20 of the second when Giordano's shot went in off his skate. Lehtonen got another tough break 3:12 later when Giordano's seemingly harmless shot from the point hit defenseman Dan Hamhuis and found the net.
The Stars were without captain Jamie Benn because of an eye injury. Benn sustained the injury Thursday night during a fight with Nikita Tryamkin in Vancouver. The left winger took a glove in the eye from the 6-foot-7.
"He got scratched, saw the eye doctor, got a glove in the eye," Stars head coach Lindy Ruff told the team's website before the game.
Ruff said he believed Benn would only miss one game.
NOTES: Former Flame RW Jiri Hudler was inserted into the lineup to replace F Jamie Benn. Hudler was a healthy scratch the previous five contests and 16 of the past 23. ... Other Dallas scratches were D Jamie Oleksiak and LW Antoine Roussel. ... The Flames became the first team to have at least 12 players with double-digit goals this season when RW Alex Chiasson scored his 10th on Wednesday. ... With G Brian Elliott back in the lineup, G Jon Gillies was among the scratches for Calgary. He was an emergency recall Wednesday and will likely be returned to AHL Stockton on Saturday. ... Calgary's other healthy scratches were D Dennis Wideman, C Curtis Lazar, C Freddie Hamilton and D Rasmus Andersson.